McCain is daring the Obama campaign to release a Keating 5 ad.....

Of the four people that the ad links to Obama only one, Emil Jones, is black. (Though the problem with Obama's link to Jones is never made clear.)

Isn't it? You just mentioned it. Emil Jones must be part of "the black conspiracy", just like Franklin Raines.

(Some people really do think this way. I like to think they're rare, but it's hard to tell.)

Fox's coverage of this reads like advice to McCain on how to get even nastier:

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/22/hard-hitting-mccain-ad-links-obama-to-chicago-political-machine/

PLEASE quit playing the race card, because this ad is about linking Obama to the corrupt, mob-influenced nepotism that are a KNOWN FACT to anyone living in Chicago. It has absolutley NO RACIAL tones to it.

I got news for you:

"Urban" only equals "black" to advertisers.

This ad isn't really about anything, is it? The summary: Here are four people that Obama knows that you never heard of, but trust us, they're not nice. That's it. Seems pretty dumb. I would think that for guilt by association to work, the audience either has to know who the associate is or what they're guilty of. And neither is really that obvious here.

I agree with the poster who said that Keating 5 is fair game. That ad writes itself.

"Urban" doesn't equal "black." Uh-huh. Just like using the word "uppity" when speaking of a person of color has no racial overtones. "Urban" is like a dog-whistle to the low-information voters that the repubs rely on.

Kufir = anti-choice, pro-gun, now racist. I wonder what else he'll add to the list before election day.

Palin is governor of a state, so demoting Obama to the city government level makes Palin look better.

Just more typical guilt-by-association nonsense. It's funny how much this mirrors the SNL piece this week. They're basically saying "Obama is from Chicago. Chicago has a reputation for corruption in politics. Ergo, Obama is corrupt."

Because no McCain ad would be complete without a blatant lie, the campaign covers that when they call Tony Rezko Obama's "money man".

I guess McCain's minions don't really understand the stark fact that anyone who's lived in, spent time in, or even flown over Chicago is irrevocably tainted by its urbanized evil. See how it caused the harsh-looking skintones in this ad? That's not Photoshop trickery; that's evil. Avert your eyes and lock up your daughters!

Barack Obama represents the state of Illinois, and anything bad that happens there must be associated with Barack and be his fault. By using that same reasoning against McCain, it is therefore John's fault that the Phoenix Cardinals suck.

I just watch commercials like this and laugh. The corruption is a running a joke, and it exists, but it generally works for large parts of the city.

I see shirts that say "MAYOR FOR LIFE" with a picture of Richard M. Daley on them, and yearn for one of my own.

Sandburg said it best:

HOG Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

Stormy, husky, brawling,

City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I

have seen your painted women under the gas lamps

luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it

is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to

kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the

faces of women and children I have seen the marks

of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who

sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer

and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing

so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on

job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the

little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning

as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

Bareheaded,

Shoveling,

Wrecking,

Planning,

Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with

white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young

man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has

never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.

and under his ribs the heart of the people,

Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of

Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog

Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with

Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

George W. Bush spent his 60th birthday in Chicago at a private dinner hosted for him by Mayor Daley. Birds of a feather...

The fact that Palin is from Alaska doesn't win her any favors in my subconscious, not that Obama is "exploiting" this fact. If the Republicans wanted this to work better, they need to lengthen it a bit and show some "urban" scenes. People posted at the store, homelessness, something homosexual, etc. Mirror that with some images of political "fat cats"--ribbon cutting ceremonies, backslapping on a golf course, etc. Political ads, like politics, aren't rational contests about issues. It's about altering gut feelings.

"harsh-looking skintones in this ad"

Barack seems, hmmm, I don't know, darker than usual in these ads. I tried adjusting my screen but he's definitely a few shades darker. But surely Hero McCain would never approve such a message.

And I didn't know Obama had a "money man". Sounds awfully mobster to me so it must be true.

More ignorance about Chicago. Obama wasn't embraced by Chicago machine politics until he became the senatorial nominee. Obama is a product of South Cook machine politics--considerably less monolithic and top-down than the city machine.

To say you know the four people mentioned in the ad is simply saying you come from Illinois and you're in politics. Gasp!

I understand Palin knows Ted Stevens; does corruption pass by touch? And McCain, of course, was part of the Keating Five--a scandal considerably similar to today's financial scandal.

Not that the press, including Salon, likes to mention that, of course.